charge control?

I'm sure this was covered in some other post, but the search engine for previous post, is a pain. Even after filtering.

Someone will prove me wrong.

Anyways, what I'm trying to do, is to charge control a battery hooked up to a solar panel.

The simplest and cheapest if possible.

Here is what I come up with.

Any input here will be appreciated.

Its late, and I'm sure I overlooked many things.

BTW the battery is 12v lead acid type. Also the led could also be a path for current drain when voltage getting beyond 13v at battery.

the zener will drop 13 volts from the 18v supply , so rest is a 5V applied across the R and led , w/o battery . also if battery is connected , it will not get charged , but(slowly) drained by the load(s)

A simple blocking diode is probably all you need (and it might even already be built into the solar panel), unless the solar panel is massive, and the battery very small, over charging isn't likely to be a problem.

Thank you both.

It can't get any simpler then a blocking diode.